Posts Tagged: Shawn Camp

Oakland Athletics @ Toronto Blue Jays

Tue, August 9th, 2011 7:05 PM @ Rogers Centre

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If you’ve caught Buck in the act again, please send it to us by commenting to this post or by tweeting @buckblunders or by emailing: info@buckblunders.com. Text, Audio, and Visual comments will all be accepted. If you have an audio or video comment, please post a link to it. Thanks.

Buck Blunder 1 – A grammer-ish blunder here as Buck Martinez says that the team that scores the most wins, wins the game.. You mean most runs! (Contributed by @JeffMacin)

Buck Blunder 2 – Buck Martinez mentioned that Brett Cecil was a rookie last year, but he was a rookie in ’09. (Contributed by @ShakeelSalamath)

Buck Blunder 3 – This is a debatable Buck Blunder, but he said there were 3 Canadians in this game, but he forgot to mention Mark Teahen who is a Canadian Citizen. (Contributed by @ShakeelSalamath)

Well, well.. We’re finally at the so called mid point of the 2011 season and the Blue Jays have had a roller coaster ride in the first half with their bullpen. Coming into the season, many of you probably thought that our bullpen would be even better than last year. With all the veteran arms that we signed and traded for (Rauch, Dotel, Francisco) the Blue Jays had a blueprint to help the young arms in the starting rotation… Boy were we wrong.

Last year, we had to hold our breath whenever Bizzaro Clark Kent, Kevin Gregg came into the 9th to try and close out a 3, 2 or 1 run lead. No Blue Jays lead seemed safe last year, but if you compare the numbers from last year to this year, you might be a bit surprised. According to Baseball References, Kevin Gregg only blew 6 saves last year and 4 before the All-Star break. The Blue Jays this year have combined 15 blown saves (4 – Francisco, 3 – Rauch, 3 – Rzepczynski, 2 – Perez, 2 – Frasor, 1 – Camp), which is 1 less than the Blue Jays had all of last season (6 – Gregg, 4 – Frasor, 2 – Tallet, 2 – Camp, 2 – Downs). So to think of it, does this mean that Gregg wasn’t as bad as we thought? Sorry, i don’t think so.. He was bad last year. It’s just that this year’s core is making him look good. As Bob McCowan would say, he would fit perfectly with this group.

But let’s not talk too much about Gregg since he’s in the past. What do we do about this year’s group? We all know that Frank Francisco was dubbed the closer when we got him from Texas for slugger Mike Napoli. After starting on the DL at the beginning of the season, Francisco has looked nothing like the closer he was in 2009. Maybe he hasn’t been the same after the throwing chair incident. So if he’s so bad, why do the Blue Jays give him chance after chance? Because he has good stuff? Because he’s been an elite closer in the past? That’s just bull. But John Farrell’s hands are pretty tied right now. Other than Francisco, Rauch and Dotel haven’t had much success with the closer role. Dotel hasn’t blown a save, but you can’t put him in there if a lefty is up, cause he gets creamed by lefties. Rauch has been a little more reliable because he doesn’t walk many batters, but he still give up a ton of fly balls, which some go out of the park. So what do the Blue Jays do to salvage this season?

Some people have been saying we should move these pitchers or DFA them, but to be honest, that is not going to happen. 5 of the relief pitchers are Type-B free agents after this year. If you are unfamiliar with what a Type-B Free Agent means, there are Elias Rankings for different positions and both leagues for every player in the MLB. The rankings determine whether players are either a Type-A or Type-B in the player’s positions like (C, 2B/3B/SS, 1B/DH/OF, SP and RP). So at the end of the year, players who are free-agents who are given arbitration by their original team, but decline and are signed by other team, the original team receive draft picks for next year’s draft. Type-A free agents score 1 first round pick (unless the team is a bottom 15 team based on record, then a team receives a 2nd round pick, or if a team signed a Type-A player with a higher score, then the team will get a 2nd round pick, or 3rd round pick depending on how many Type-A free agents they sign) and a sandwich pick (a pick between the first and second round). If you want an example of this, remember when the New York Yankees signed A.J. Burnett, Mark Teixeria, and CC Sabathia and the Blue Jays only got a 3rd round pick out of that cause CC and Mark were higher Type-A FA? Yeah, the Blue Jays got royally screwed on that.

So back to my point after that little education. Type-B free agents will net a team with one sandwich pick. Last year, the Blue Jays netted 4 sandwich picks (Scott Downs (A), Kevin Gregg (B), Miguel Olivo (B), John Buck (B)) and we all know that AA loves the fact that he can add as much young talent as he can to his farm. This year is no different. I’m sure AA is salivating that he could potentially get 5 sandwich picks out of Francisco, Dotel, Rauch, Camp, and Frasor (though Frasor is on the bubble of being a Type-A and if he is, he won’t decline arbitration cause no one will give up their own top pick for him). AA would only trade these guys if the player was a top prospect (higher than a sandwich pick) or a player who would net him a Type-A free agent. Remember how last year he tried to trade Downs and Frasor who were both Type-A FA at the end of the season and no one wanted to give him the talent he demanded? I’m sure this is going to be the same this year, so don’t expect any movement in the pen.

So with that being said, we will probably have to live with this shaky bullpen for the remainder of the season. Maybe we throw some one else out there besides Rauch and Francisco. Maybe Frasor should get another stab at the closer role as he has been a little more consistent than these two or what about Casey Janssen? Before he got hurt, he was very good against lefties and righties and has the best ERA and WHIP amongst the relievers. I say the Blue Jays should go with either the matchups and the hot arm. At this point in time, there is no Capital ‘C’ closer as no one seems to really want to take the role and run with it, like Gregg did last year (Frasor was the closer at the beginning of the season, but was ousted when Gregg dominated the first couple months).

But what about the future? Who should be our Capital ‘C’ closer??? With probably 5 relievers leaving this team cause of their Type-B status, the bullpen looks to have an overhaul and room for 5 relievers to come in and help this team out, which means, we could have a closer within the system. When was the last time the Blue Jays had a closer that was home grown? Billy Koch you say? Actually that’s not correct. In 2002, Kelvim Escobar saved 38 games and he was a Toronto draft pick, though he was a converted starting pitcher that year. Besides the point, we haven’t had a home grown closer since 2002, nor have we had a closer pitch full consecutive season since Billy Koch (1999-2001). So who can we throw in the fire for next year and years to come as the Blue Jays will contend for the World Series title? Three names come into mind…

Zach Stewart – We saw this young stud for a few starts in June and he had some great stuff. His game isn’t about power, but he had some great movement on his pitches that could be useful in closing games out. Although he is starting in New Hampshire, the Blue Jays have a lot of Starting Pitching, which could move Stewart in the pen just like Purcey and Rzepcynski. People have been saying he could close, so maybe we’ll see him there next year… or maybe this guy…

Henderson Alverez – This guy has been on fire this year. His stuff and power pitching is the opposite of Stewart. Sal Fasano has said that he is averaging 95-96 mph on his fastball and has topped the gun at 101!!! That’s Alrodis Chapman area. I would love to see a hard throwing pitcher close games out like the Papelbon and Marmol, striking out guys left, right and center, but let’s hope he has some off speed pitchers, or it could be another Billy Koch, who threw hard, but didn’t have a changeup slow enough to offset the batter’s timing, ultimately making him very predictable and fizzling. He could very well be the closer of the future, but probably not next year. Hopefully we can see a glimpse of him this year when the rosters expand to 40 in September… Or finally…

Dustin McGowan – The dark horse of this bunch, McGowan has been nothing but unlucky for his MLB career. Having had Tommy John surgery, than a shoulder surgery, than a minor knee surgery, this guy just needs to get healthy so he can help this ball club. McGowan has been preparing himself as a starting pitcher in rehab, but I think he could be a closer or setup man in the future. He has the stuff to be a closer, but can he transition to that relief role, because some pitchers can’t do that as they are so use to pitching every 5 days and getting into their routine as oppose to being a relief pitcher and not knowing when you’ll pitch. I’d love to see McGowan just come back to the mound for the Blue Jays and make an incredible come back like Chris Carpenter. We’ll see. We miss the long sideburns, though Cecil is sporting that look now.. Stealing his thunder :p

They say that the best closers are starting pitchers who fail and get converted to being a relief pitcher. We’ve seen this before from Mariano Rivera, Jonathan Papelbon, Eric Gagne, Tom Heinke, etc… So why not have this happen for the Blue Jays. It can’t get any worse than that 4 run lead destruction last Thursday against the Cleveland Indians. If you have any other suggestions or comments, let me know below in the comment box. I’d like to hear your thoughts on what the Blue Jays should do and who maybe be the next closer of the Blue Jays’ future!

Toronto Blue Jays @ Boston Red Sox

Wed, July 6th, 2011 7:10 PM @ Fenway Park

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If you’ve caught Buck in the act again, please send it to us by commenting to this post or by tweeting @buckblunders or by emailing: info@buckblunders.com. Text, Audio, and Visual comments will all be accepted. If you have an audio or video comment, please post a link to it. Thanks.

Buck Blunder 1 – Buck Martinez was talking about Jose Bautista and his ABs against Riverdancer Papelbum. He said he went 0-7 against him last night. I think he meant 0-7 all time and not that one game. Good thing Bautista delivered his 28th off Papelbum. (Contributed by @ShakeelSalamath)

Buck Blunder 2 – Ricky Romero was on the mound tonight and Buck was talking about his impressive 9 game streak of going 7 innings or more. Too bad he said it was 5 or more… (Contributed by @LFri45)

Buck Blunder 4 – Buck Martinez mentioned last night’s Blue Jays starter as a righty. I didn’t know Brett Cecil can pitch right handed. Maybe if you watch the game from a mirrored point of view. (Contributed by @WildWalrusChild)

Buck Blunder 5 – Buck Martinez said players take 162 Batting practices a day. You mean for the entire season right Bucko? (Contributed by @gomego11)

Buck Blunder 6 – Buck was off by 2 pitchers when mentioning a 32 pitch inning by Romero. He said it was 34. (Contributed by @seanmacey13)

Buck Blunder 7 – We have a new Synergy pair. Shawn Camp and Shane Victorino -> Shawn Victorino… The Flyn’ Hawaiian Camp Day would be awesome! (Contributed by @jordangeville and @coolhead2010)

Buck Blunder 8 – I didn’t know pitchers can charge the mound! According to Buck Martinez, Jon Rauch did in that Philly game where he got the boot! (Contributed by @ROHZeebo)

Buck Blunder 9 – I know that Josh Bard was a Red Sox before, but come on. Daniel Bard is the pitcher and Josh Bard is a catcher. Maybe Daniel threw to Josh at one point in their careers. (Contributed by @GuzmansJhercurl and @ROHZeebo)

Buck Blunder 10 – So Daniel Bard comes in and the difference between his velocity and Wakefield is about 25-30 mph. Buck Martinez said that the players will think the ball is travelling at 100 mph, when Bard can hit the gun at 98-99 mph. So it’s more like 130 mph. (Contributed by @ROHZeebo)

Buck Blunder 11 – Buck Martinez mistaken the outs in the inning saying it was only 1 when it was 2 :p (Contributed by @davepoaps)

Buck Blunder 15 – Late blunder here. Apparently there was a play where catcher’s interference could have been called on a Eric Thames AB. Buck Martinez said that you can get a re-pitch, but really, you get first base. Thanks to commenter “davepoaps”